lavigne



A. LAVIGNE.

oom.

APPLICATION HLED DEC.5| 9H- 1,31 5 ,631 Patented Sept. 9, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Witness: OP Z32 vzzzar- Q ag/6% ail 0 k (Wt-60201654 A. LAVIGNE.

LOOM.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.5, 1911.

1,315,631. Patented Sept. 9, 1919.

g 8 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. J 4 6 A5 git 72?: of, Inventor.

a/L v M a ammo au ALBERT LAVIGNE, OF BRUNSWICK, MAINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 9, 1919.

Application filed December 5, 1917. Serial No. 205,612.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT LAVIGNE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brunswick, in the county of Cumberland, State of Maine, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Looms, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The invention comprises novel picker retracting means by which the picker working in a loom-shuttle-box that has been opened for a change of shuttles is cleared from the shuttle about to be ejected from such shuttle-box in making the change of shuttles, and by which the picker of a shuttle-box that has been opened for insertion of a shuttle is lqept out of the way of such shuttle as the latter is inserted into the shuttle-box.

More particularly, the invention is intended for use in looms of the class in which a shuttle occupying a shuttle-box on the lay of a loom is replaced automatically by a fresh or reserve shuttle supplied by means of transferring or feeding devices. Such replacement takes place in weft-replenish ing looms of the shuttle-changing type, and has been proposed also for substituting one shuttle for another in getting particular results in weaving. The invention is applicable to looms of the kind in. which a shuttle-box is opened-up by movement of one of its sidewalls for the of shuttles.

The invention consists, essentially, in a picker retracting means which is controlled by the same means which controls a vertically movable wall of the shuttle-box with which the said means is associated. It may be variously embodied, applied, and com bined in practice, in its broader phases. The drawings show an illustrative embodiment thereof, constituting a specificphase thereof, in which the control of the picker retracting device is exercised through a vertically movable shuttle-box front plate.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a side elevation of certain of the parts of a shuttle- .shaft 12 of the 100111.

purposes of a change changing loom, with the said embodiment combined therewith.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of some of the parts of Fig. 1, and the said embodiment.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the parts that are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. l is a plan view showing the frontplate raised.

Figs. 5 and 6 are front and side elevations with the parts positioned as in Fig. l.

At 1, Fig. 1, is represented a portion of one side-frame of a loom, and at 2 a portion of one sword of the lay. A portion of the lay-beam is shown at 3 in the different views, and 4: is a vertically-movable frontplate constituting the front wall of the shuttle-box on the lay at the replenishing side of the loom. The said front-plate is in this instance attached to the arms 5, 5, of a rocker 6 which is journaled in brackets 7 7 projecting rearwardly from the l. y-beam 3, the said rocker having a rearwardlyprojecting arm 8 which is connected by a rod 9 to a lever 10 that is engaged by a cam 11 on the intermittingly rotated change- At 13 is a contracting spiral spring, engaged with a rockerarm 5, which acts to close the frontplate 4 down into place against the top of laybeam 3, and to hold it in there with the shuttle-box closed, and with lever 10 raised into position close to the periphery of the cam 11. At 14 is the picker which works in the said shuttle-box, and at 15 is the picker stick carrying the said picker and working back and forth, transversely of the loom, in the slot 16 made vertically through the lay-beam. As is well-known, for the purposes of a change of shuttles the changeshaft 12 is started automatically into rotation, and during such rotation the cam 11 operates through the lever 10 to effect the raising of the shuttle-box front-plate 4; so as to open the shuttle-box to permit of the ejection of the shuttle then occupying the shuttle-box, and the insertion of a fresh or reserve shuttle into the shuttle-box, and after the insertion of the latter shuttle the cam permits the front-plate to close down into place in front of the inserted shuttle, and the rotation of the change-shaft automatically stops.

During the regular operation of the loom, at such times as the shuttle is absent from the shuttle-box and at the other side of the loom, the picker-stick occupies a position slightly inward from the outer end of the slot 16 in which it works. This is its normal position.

It happens frequently in usual practice that after the entrance of the shuttle into a shuttle-box in its return flight from the opposite side of the loom the leading or outer tip of the shuttle remains in the hole or cavity which forms in the inner end of the picker 14. This enga ement of the said shuttle-tip with the pic er sometimes interferes with proper ejection of the shuttle forwardly from the opened-up shuttle-box in the operation of making a change of shuttles. Also, the picker sometimes in its slightly-inward position stands in the path of the outer end of the fresh or reserve shuttle that is in process of being fed or transferred rearwardly into the opened-up and empty shuttle-box, so that the picker inter feres with the proper insertion of the said fresh or reserve shuttle into the shuttle-box. In case the picker blocks the movement of the outer end of the fresh or reserve shuttle completely into proper position within the shuttle-box, the front-plate in descending lands upon the top of the shuttle and is prevented from closing down into place. There by the proper working of the loom is prevented.

The picker-retracting means in which the invention resides operates on the opening of the shuttle-box to move the picker outwardly to the outer end of the shuttle-box, clear of the adjacent tip of the shuttle already occupying the shuttle-box and about to be ejected, and out of the way of the outer end of the fresh or reserve shuttle as the latter is fed or transferred into the shuttle-box. Thereby interference with the ejection of the old shuttle, or with the insertion of the fresh or reserve shuttle and the closing of the shuttle-box, is obviated.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention utilizes directly the movement of the front-plate rocker for the operative control of the picker-retracting means, and in such embodiment, for special convenience, the

said means is combined operatively with the front-plate itself. Referring now to the said embodiment V A spring-actuated swinging picker-retracting arm a is mounted conveniently for the required coaction. In this instance it is at the lower end of an upright shaft 7) that is mounted in bearings on a stand 0 that is attached to the front side of the outer end of lay-beam 3, in such relations that the said arm in its movements is adapted to engage with the inner edge of picker-stick 15 at a point below the lay-beam. In this instance the said arm is actuated in one direction by means of a coil-spring (Z surrounding the shaft 5, with one end engaged with the stand 0' and the other with the shaft I). The said spring cl acts with a tendency to swing the arm a outwardly so as to engage with the picker-stick and press the latter outwardly to the outer end of the picker-stick slot 16 in the lay-beam. The operative connection between the front-plate 4 and the arm a is established by means of a cam 6 carried by the outer end of the front-plate and arranged to engage with a finger f fixed upon the upper end of the shaftb of the said arm, The cam e is so combined with the front-plate, and the finger f is so related thereto, that the descent of the front plate into working position carries the cam into engagement with the finger, and the cam is so shaped and proportioned that through the said engagement as the front-plate descends the arm a is swung inwardly away from the picker-stick into its position in' operated to raise the front-plate so as to open the shuttle-box for a change of shuttles,

the movement of cam e relative to finger f permits spring 0 to actuate arm a so as to swing the said arm outwardly intoits position shown in Fig. 4. In this movement of 7 arm a the latter acts through its engagement with the picker-stick to move the latter outward to the outer end of picker-stick slot 16, and thereby move the picker away from the end of the working shuttle occupying the shuttle-box, as well as out of the path ofthe outer end of the incoming fresh or reserve shuttle as the latter is inserted into the shuttle-box after the emptying of the latter. By the subsequent closing of the front-plate down into its working position the arm a is actuated into its idle position shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, again.

Various practical advantages of the construction in the case of the illustrated embodiment of the invention will be apparent to the loom-builder, loom-fixer, and weaver.

hat is claimed as the invention is 2- 1. In a loom, the combination with a rocker, a shuttle-box wall connected therewith, and means for actuating said rocker to raise and lower such wall to open and close the shuttle-box, of a picker-stick retracting rocker that is actuated in one di direction by a spring, whereby it is moved retracting rocker controlled by the said into inoperative position as the wall closes cam and operated in the opening movement into place, and as the wall is opened is opof the shuttle-box wall to engage the pickererated to engage the icker-stick and retract stick and retract the same and the picker.

5 the same and the pic er. In testimony whereof I afiix my signature 5 2. In a loom, the combination with a in presence of two witnesses. rocker, a shuttle-box Wall and cam connected ALBERT LAVIGNE. therewith, and means for actuating said Witnesses: rocker to raise and lower such wall to open CHAs. F. RANDALL, 1.0 and close the shuttle-box, of a picker-stick NATHAN B. DAY.

Copies of this patent mey be obtained for iive cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner 01' Iatents, Washington, D. 

